Topic

Does anybody have suggestions on how to:
Increase the volume of the indicator clicks.
Increase the brightness of the warning lights in the dash pod.

The lamps in the instrument binnacle are 509t I think & if the expression “dim bulb” was coined after looking at these with the sun on your back I wouldn’t be surprised . If you root around eBay you’ll find these with white LED cob inserts & these are a great improvement. *
On the indicator problem, this is exasperated by advancing years & again eBay is your friend. If you are a farter about as I am you can fit a sounder to enhance the indicating experience. Miniature sounders off the aforementioned mass emporium coupled to a bridge rectifier can easily be linked into the system.
Pop out the middle vent then pop out the emergency indicator switch, pick up the green/red wire & the green/ white wire & connect those to the A/C on the bridge. Take the positive terminal on the bridge to the positive on the sounder & run the negative to ground. Attenuate the racket from the sounder to taste (several layers of gaffa if are young, may be required, fewer as you age) & reassemble.
As usual when a quiz question like this comes in I’m miles away from my diagrams so check the colour combinations by visiting the circuit diagrams found in the Community section.
* these are polarity conscious so expect a couple of tries.
M

Great information thanks.
For the indicator clicks, today I should be receiving a pack of 5 from Amazon. One was needed for the reverse sensor sounder, so I'll have some left over for the indicator.

If your changing the instrument cluster bulbs you could also consider changing the sickly orange filter for something lighter and more cheerful.

Whilst it’s fine to change the most of the warning lights for LEDs, don’t change the ignition/ battery charge light, this needs to be an incandescent bulb, the reason is that it excites the fields in the alternator causing it to charge

That's interesting. I did'nt know about that.

Can I add a bit to my early post. I didn’t make it clear when discussing the indicator sounder, having said connect the bridge positive to the sounder positive & the negative to ground. It’s the sounder negative that goes to ground. Sorry.

Last night I took the instrument cluster out to see how to replace the lights. But it looks like I need to pull the cluster apart to get to the lamps.

Is this the same on all TF's or is this because mine is an LE500?

I don't really want to go that deep into the electronics in case I damage something. All the plastic parts (trim etc) on the LE500 are very lightweight and feeble. In my opinion, these parts are all low quality - basically white plastic spray painted black. Are earlier TF's like this?

There's a photograph of a chap on the production line at BL, as it was at the time, armed with a fat hammer to "align" the front bulkhead of an unspecified car, if he was involved in the manufacture of the instruments they would need by necessity to be resilient. They certainly are in my f & in my lamented tf, in fact apart from the digital odometer, a few extra symbols & the curvature of the "glass" everything was the same. The lamp holders are bayonet fit through cut outs on the board...........
I've a sacrificial set of instruments tucked away, I'll root it out & post pictures later.
M

These are pictures of the back of the instruments, holders & lamps, including the larger incandescent charge lamp with the yellow Johnny on, alluded to by Cobber. I should have put a known object adjacent to give scale but I reckon you’re bright enough to work it out.
The lamp has wire terminals folded back over the moulded part of the envelope & these make contact with the copper contacts which also form the wiping terminals on the board.
The yellow lamp is a led, used during a failed experiment, the white ones I used were little more than the bayonet base with a square chip mounted on top.
M

Thanks, this is great information.

I assume that I need to remove all the little socket head screws and split open the cluster to get to these lamps.

To get to the lamp holders away, as illustrated, you grip the black wedge lamp base & twist through 45 degrees, the lamp & base simply pops out. If you were replacing a failed lamp you would grasp the glass envelope & pull, the lamp would come away, a new one inserted & the base replaced & with the 45 degree reverse twist. You are then good for the next 10,000 miles.
This is modus operandi for the f as illustrated, I can't see SEAC changing that system for 500 cars.
M